Date: 1593

"And care consumes the minde of man, / as fire melts Virgin Waxe."

— Churchyard, Thomas (1523?-1604)

Date: 1595 [c. 1579 in ms.]

The poet is "a passionate lover of that unspeakable and everlasting bewtie to be seene by the eyes of the mind"

— Sidney, Philip, Sir (1554-1586)

Date: 1595 [c. 1579 in ms.]

"Only the poet, disdaining to be tied to any such subjection, lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, doth grow, in effect, into another nature, in making things either better than nature brings forth, or, quite anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the heroes, demi-gods, cyclops, c...

— Sidney, Philip, Sir (1554-1586)

Date: 1669, 1694

"I say this is a Spanker Madrigal, and newly minted in my Brain."

— Boyle, Roger, 1st Earl of Orrery (1621-1679)

Date: 1692

"He has clearly overthrown all those Metaphysical Whymsies, which infected mens Brains with a Spice of Madness, whereby they feign'd a Knowledge where they had none, by making a noise with Sounds, without clear and distinct Significations."

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: 1692

"In what a miserable condition do we count those, in whom it hath pleased the great Contriver of the Eyes and Sight, to shut those two little Windows of the Soul?"

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: 1692

"[T]he Explanation whereof is allowed by all men as satisfactory, 'tis this, in Tab. 41. Fig. 2. the Image a b of the Object A B is painted on the Retina inverted, and yet the Eye (or rather the Soul by means of the Eye) sees the Object erect and in its natural Posture."

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: 1696

The soul may leave "the reins in the wild hand of nature, who like a Phaeton, drives the fiery chariot, and sets the world on flame"

— Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664-1726)

Date: 1696

"Poor thredbare Vertue ne'er admir'd in Court. / But seeks its Refuge in an honest Mind, / There it securely dwells, / Like Anchorets in Cells / Where no Ambition nor wild Lust resorts."

— Tutchin, John (1661-1707)

Date: 1696

"Pray is not the Face the Mirror of the Mind?"

— Motteux, Peter Anthony (1663-1718)